ORIGIN

Cosworth Twin-Cam Swapped Merkur XR4ti

This Merkur XR4ti is one of few RS500-style conversions we have seen in North America that has gone fare enough to swap in a Cosworth YB 16V turbo engine. We have never seen a genuine RS500 in the USA, so this car with some further sorting would be plenty close. Black is even our favorite color on the model because of its similarity to the Texaco-livery WTCC cars of the late 80s. Find it here on Craigslist in Vancouver, BC for $10k.

At this price we don’t expect perfection, but seeing that Cossie valve cover design under the hood is never an option for any less cash. The car below is what we would use for inspiration. A set of BBS LMs with silver centers, some tires with more side-wall, and dropping the rear of the car to tuck it all up inside those big rear flares would be the first priority. The seller has done much right with the Ford nose parts, hood, and rear wing. The split rear window difference is noticeable above. There isn’t a great way to solve that, but only about three Americans know to point it out.

Even if some details need sorting, that fact that this car is already Cosworth powered is an amazing win. The 2.3L Ford turbo that came on the US-spec cars has some potential, but not like this engine. Tuning here is almost limitless, bounded only by budget and desired rebuild frequency. Check out this fantastic feature by our friends at SpeedHunters on one of the WTCC cars that is currently being used in New Zealand.

This is an interesting car with great potential in the right hands. The seller doesn’t list the build year, and since these were imported from 1985 to 1989 some are over and some are under 25 years of age for importation into the USA. We hope it is an early Merkur, but since the model was sold in the USA there may be a loophole for importation. This car plus an additional $10k worth of sorting would make it one of the coolest $20k cars we can think of.